Five Personal Qualities Essential for Achieving a Better Life

There are five important, personal qualities that one must learn to develop to achieve success and a better life.

In the mid-1980s, the Gallup organization conducted one of the most extensive surveys into the reasons for success ever conducted in America. They selected 1,500 men and women whose names and biographies had appeared in Marquis ’s Who’s Who in America , the most prestigious register of noteworthy individuals in the country.

They asked them, at great length, what they felt were the reasons why they had become so well known and respected in their lifetimes. This group included Nobel Prize winners, university presidents, heads of Fortune 500 corporations, inventors, entrepreneurs, and even a high-school football coach.

After many months of research and interviews, they were able to isolate the most important personal qualities needed for success and to achieve a better life. Their findings turned out to be consistent with virtually all the other research that ’s been done in this area.

Common Sense

The first and most important of the personal qualities needed for success was defined as, common sense. It is said that the average person has an enormous amount of common sense because he or she hasn’t used any of it yet. Common sense seems to be something that a person accumulates as the result of experience over a long period of time.

Common sense was defined by the participants in this survey as the “ability to cut to the core of a matter, to recognize and deal with the essential elements of a problem or a situation, rather than getting sidetracked by smaller issues or symptoms.”

Another definition of common sense was “The ability to learn from experience and then to apply those lessons to subsequent experiences.” Common sense was seen as the core of all personal qualities that enabled a person to become increasingly more effective over time.

Be Good at What You Do

The second of all the personal qualities needed for success that came out of the study was that of expertise. Most successful people are very good at what they do and they know they are very good. They have learned and practiced and reflected and gotten better and better until they are recognized by their peers as being among the very best in their fields. This feeling of being the best is an absolute prerequisite for achieving a better life.

Self-Reliance

Another one of the personal qualities identified in the study was that of self-reliance. Men and women who are respected by others tend to look primarily to themselves for the answers to their questions and for the solutions to their problems. They are highly self-responsible.

They do not blame others or make excuses when things go wrong. They regard themselves as the primary creative forces in their own lives. They volunteer for tough assignments, and they are willing to take charge when something needs to be done.

Intelligence Is More Than IQ

Intelligence is another one of the top personal qualities that was identified through the study. Intelligence seems to be a key requirement for success in any field. However, when they looked at this subject, they found that intelligence was not necessarily measured in terms of IQ.

Many of the most notable men and women alive today did poorly in school. They got low grades or no grades, and many of them had not completed university or even high school. One gentleman in the study could not even read or write, and yet he had gotten all the way through university by covering it up and getting others to do his assignments for him.

Become Result Oriented

The last of all personal qualities identified in the study was that of being result oriented. This means that you know that you are capable of getting the results for which you are responsible. All highly respected men and women are recognized as being the kind of people who can get the job done, whatever it is. They are invariably decisive, result oriented people.

They are highly result oriented because they have a bias for action and a sense of urgency. They have trained themselves to be extremely capable at doing whatever is required. Bigger and better jobs and responsibilities seem to flow to them. The world tends to step aside and make way for the person who knows what he or she is doing and knows where he or she is going.

For a Better Life, Get in Tune With Your Best Personal Qualities

One of the most intelligent things that you can do is to get better at the most important things you do to get the results that determine your success. The better your results, the higher the chances are of you achieving a better life for yourself. By becoming intensely result oriented, you will secure a better life for yourself.

Thank you for reading this article on the five personal qualities that will help you achieve a better life. Do you consider yourself result oriented or a person who has common sense? Please share any comments below!

Topics included in this article include

Better Life

Common Sense

Personal Qualities

Result Oriented

About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and Youtube.

Five Personal Qualities Essential for Achieving a Better Life
Written By Brian Tracy | Personal Success | November 24th, 2012 |

I’d like to know if you or anyone out there has the original source from Gallup for this article.

Thanks!

Carol

In the mid-1980s, the Gallup organization conducted one of the most extensive surveys into the reasons for success ever conducted in America. They selected 1,500 men and women whose names and biographies had appeared in Marquis â€™s Whoâ€™s Who in America , the most prestigious register of noteworthy individuals in the country.

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